Masahiro Mori and His Ceramic Design, The Open Archives
I’ve been educating myself on Masahiro Mori and his life’s work, it’s very inspiring to read about an individual like Masahiro as he’s probably one of the best that ever lived in his particular field. If you’re from Japan Mr Mori won’t need any introduction at all, for those Europeans or
Works by Japanese Potter Mamiko Wada
After my recent posts on architecture, basket weaving, lacquerware and antique art, I feel like I've been pulling out all the stops to show a variety of different subjects on the blog. It's not always that easy, as usually these things come in bunches so you end up with too many architects or too mu
Photographs of Maiko Okuno’s Lacquerware Exhibition
I'm not usually one to split up images like this, I prefer to keep them all landscape or at least have a mixture of the two sizes. But since it's Friday I thought I'd let myself off, also these are very tasty indeed so I knew even though they weren't that big you would still appreciate them. Sometim
Wood in Progress by Ernst Gamperl
Ernst Gamperl is a bit of a legend in the craft circles, I'm surprised we haven't talked about him before because his wooden forms are spectacular to say the least. It seems like a good time to visit his works and showcase some exciting shapes that might get you all inspired, it certainly had me int
Short Film Featuring Lacquer Artist Isamu Odashima
After the article that I put together late last week featuring artists and sculptures Alma Allen, Ani Kasten & Adam Silverman, I thought I would showcase another video produced by the same Japanese company but on a slightly different wavelength. This particular video has no English speaking, or Engl
Collecting Lacquer with Kenji Suzuki
It's not often that I bring films into the archive, Daniel tends to have a knack for finding the best on the web in the fields of art, design and craft. But today I came across this short piece that doesn't have any commentary, but has very simple filming and features some curious ongoings. In fact,
Functional Ceramics by Daisuke Kameta
Maybe we've gone a bit pottery made over here?! It seems like it's taken the reigns slightly and has grabbed hold of us, although to be fair I do feel like we're doing a pretty good job at keeping the blog well balanced and unique. Especially this week with Daniel including some nice culture type f
Bamboo Art by Hajime Nakatomi
I spent a little time this morning researching bamboo art and its origins, as expected I discovered some amazing facts and learnt quite a lot on the subject. This art reminds me of architecture in a lot of ways, but just at a much much smaller scale. Structurally it's absolutely brilliant and there'
A Film on Mingei Artist Minoru Kano
Wow, I came across this fantastic video earlier and I was surprised to see that it had only been watched 200 times in four years. A bit depressing to say the least. I have to admit the quality is not incredible, with most of it being very grainy and low on volume, but the content in the film is very
Works by Verónica Jaramillo’s Ceramic Workshop
I've been on a serious hunt for some ceramics over the past week or so. I didn't want to settle for something of lesser quality, that's not my style, and it wasn't really on my list to pull a selection from Japan again since I've turned to there a lot lately in search of inspiration. So I took an in
Futagami Brass Household Goods
Metal working and metal objects are quite hard to come by these days, I've not found much that has really grabbed my attention over the past year or so. The problem with these metal items is that it's hard to make something that's got real character and depth to it, usually it's either a silver func
Lifestyle and Product Imagery at Kitanosumaisekkeisha
We're regularly on the lookout for inspiring photography and lifestyle imagery, it's definitely a good reference for us in the shop since it gives us ideas and tips for our own, it's also refreshing to see how objects could be used in different environments. Take for example this shop in Japan that